Easy win for Royal Challengers Bangalore

Bangalore: Chris Gayle stayed till the end, as the Royal Challengers Bangalore registered a seven-wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals in a low-scoring game at the M.Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Saturday.

The hosts began their chase with Dilshan and Gayle taking Bangalore off to a flyer, bringing up 53 runs on the board. Enter Shane Watson. Bowling only his fourth delivery of the year, the right-armer forced Dilshan to edge to Royals keeper Dishant Yagnik. James Faulkner then bowled a slower delivery to Virat Kohli, which the RCB skipper inside-edged onto his stumps. The next batsman, AB de Villiers, struck a fine boundary through the gaps, before he tried to clear Ajit Chandila at mid-off. The tall spinner took a great catch, diving to his left to reduce Bangalore to 64/3.

Chris Gayle then batted with restraint, alongside rusty Saurabh Tiwary. The two left-handers chose caution over risk, and with the comfort of a small target, went about the job with singles and the odd boundary. With ten needed from the last three overs, Tiwary decided to go after Trivedi, striking two fours before passing on the strike to Gayle. The West Indian finished the game with a six, to take the Royal Challengers Bangalore to the top of the points table.

It would have been a much more competitive game, had Rajasthan managed to score more than just 117 all out.

After being put into bat by the hosts, Shane Watson made six before trying to lift Rampaul over Karthik at mid-off. The left-arm spinner timed his jump well, grabbing the ball with his fingertips, to send the Aussie back to the hut. The other opener, Ajinkya Rahane struck a mighty six, stepping out and making room, to slap a ball over the long off fence.

It would be his last scoring shot.

Jaydev Unadkat sent down a slower ball, fooling Rahane, who was early into the shot. By this time he realized, the bat had half-heartedly made contact with the ball. Dilshan had no trouble getting his fingers around the ball at point. Rajasthan’s boys from Bangalore- Rahul Dravid and Roger Binny then took control.

Binny was timing the ball, and made it a point to send the ball to the boundary when he was offered width. Having understood the field, he went inside out, to drive the ball to the cover fence. With his confidence growing, he got down on foot, and swept the ball over the fine leg fielder for six. Just when he was set for a big score, the man tried to swat a short ball that only ended as a top-edge. RCB keeper Arun Karthik took a good catch running backwards.

Brad Hodge joined Rahul Dravid, and the duo ambled along. The ones and twos weren’t going to be enough, and the pressure got to the Wall has he hit the ball straight to Rampaul at long-on. Vinay Kumar got rid of Hodge, after forcing the right-hander to edge the ball to the keeper. The tail that followed, failed to wag, and the Royals found themselves shot down for 117.